Subdivision Schemes for Thin Plate Splines

Thin plate splines are a well known entity of geometric design. They are defined as the minimizer of a variational problem whose differential operators approximate a simple notion of bending energy. Therefore, thin plate splines approximate surfaces with minimal bending energy and they are widely considered as the standard "fair" surface model. Such surfaces are desired for many modeling and design applications.
Traditionally, the way to construct such surfaces is to solve the associated variational problem using finite elements or by using analytic solutions based on radial basis functions. This paper presents a novel approach for defining and computing thin plate splines using subdivision methods. We present two methods for the construction of thin plate splines based on subdivision: A globally supported subdivision scheme which exactly minimizes the energy functional as well as a family of strictly local subdivision schemes which only utilize a small, finite number of distinct subdivision rules and approximately solve the variational problem. A tradeoff between the accuracy of the approximation and the locality of the subdivision scheme is used to pick a particular member of this family of subdivision schemes.
Later, we show applications of these approximating subdivision schemes to scattered data interpolation and the design of fair surfaces. In particular we suggest an efficient methodology for finding control points for the local subdivision scheme that will lead to an interpolating limit surface and demonstrate how the schemes can be used for the effective and efficient design of fair surfaces.     

Surface interpolation of meshes by geometric subdivision

Subdivision surfaces are generated by repeated approximation or interpolation from initial control meshes. In this paper, two new non-linear subdivision schemes, face based subdivision scheme and normal based subdivision scheme, are introduced for surface interpolation of triangular meshes. With a given coarse mesh more and more details will be added to the surface when the triangles have been split and refined. Because every intermediate mesh is a piecewise linear approximation to the final surface, the first type of subdivision scheme computes each new vertex as the solution to a least square fitting problem of selected old vertices and their neighboring triangles. Consequently, sharp features as well as smooth regions are generated automatically. For the second type of subdivision, the displacement for every new vertex is computed as a combination of normals at old vertices. By computing the vertex normals adaptively, the limit surface is G¹ smooth. The fairness of the interpolating surface can be improved further by using the neighboring faces. Because the new vertices by either of these two schemes depend on the local geometry, but not the vertex valences, the interpolating surface inherits the shape of the initial control mesh more fairly and naturally. Several examples are also presented to show the efficiency of the new algorithms.     

Artifact analysis on B-splines, box-splines and other surfaces defined by quadrilateral polyhedra

When using NURBS or subdivision surfaces as a design tool in engineering applications, designers face certain challenges. One of these is the presence of artifacts. An artifact is a feature of the surface that cannot be avoided by movement of control points by the designer. This implies that the surface contains spatial frequencies greater than one cycle per two control points. These are seen as ripples in the surface and are found in NURBS and subdivision surfaces and potentially in all surfaces specified in terms of polyhedrons of control points.Ideally, this difference between designer intent and what emerges as a surface should be eliminated. The first step to achieving this is by understanding and quantifying the artifact observed in the surface.We present methods for analysing the magnitude of artifacts in a surface defined by a quadrilateral control mesh. We use the subdivision process as a tool for analysis. Our results provide a measure of surface artifacts with respect to initial control point sampling for all B-Splines, quadrilateral box-spline surfaces and regular regions of subdivision surfaces. We use four subdivision schemes as working examples: the three box-spline subdivision schemes, Catmull-Clark (cubic B-spline), 4-3, 4-8; and Kobbelt?s interpolating scheme.     

细分曲面拟合的局部渐进插值方法

逼近型细分方法生成的细分曲面其品质要优于插值型细分方法生成的细分曲面.然而,逼近型细分方法生成的细分曲面不能插值于初始控制网格顶点.为使逼近型细分曲面具有插值能力,一般通过求解全局线性方程组,使其插值于网格顶点.当网格顶点较多时,求解线性方程组的计算量很大,因此,难以处理稠密网格.与此不同,在不直接求解线性方程组的情况下,渐进插值方法通过迭代调整控制网格顶点,最终达到插值的效果.渐进插值方法可以处理稠密的任意拓扑网格,生成插值于初始网格顶点的光滑细分曲面.并且经证明,逼近型细分曲面渐进插值具有局部性质,也就是迭代调整初始网格的若干控制顶点,且保持剩余顶点不变,最终生成的极限细分曲面仍插值于初始网格中被调整的那些顶点.这种局部渐进插值性质给形状控制带来了更多的灵活性,并且使得自适应拟合成为可能.实验结果验证了局部渐进插值的形状控制以及自适应拟合能力.     

Conjugate-Gradient Progressive-Iterative Approximation for Loop and Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surface Interpolation

Loop and Catmull-Clark are the most famous approximation subdivision schemes, but their limit surfaces do not interpolate the vertices of the given mesh. Progressive-iterative approximation (PIA) is an efficient method for data interpolation and has a wide range of applications in many fields such as subdivision surface fitting, parametric curve and surface fitting among others. However, the convergence rate of classical PIA is slow. In this paper, we present a new and fast PIA format for constructing interpolation subdivision surface that interpolates the vertices of a mesh with arbitrary topology. The proposed method, named Conjugate-Gradient Progressive-Iterative Approximation (CG-PIA), is based on the Conjugate-Gradient Iterative algorithm and the Progressive Iterative Approximation (PIA) algorithm. The method is presented using Loop and Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces. CG-PIA preserves the features of the classical PIA method, such as the advantages of both the local and global scheme and resemblance with the given mesh. Moreover, CG-PIA has the following features. 1) It has a faster convergence rate compared with the classical PIA and W-PIA. 2) CG-PIA avoids the selection of weights compared with W-PIA. 3) CG-PIA does not need to modify the subdivision schemes compared with other methods with fairness measure. Numerous examples for Loop and Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces are provided in this paper to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of CG-PIA.     

蝶形细分面片的光顺

使用蝶形细分法细分一般的初始控制网格得到的细分面片光滑而不光顺 ,面片的视觉效果很差 ,而运用现有的光顺技术 ,又只能直接光顺细分以后的结果 ,其需要保存的数据不仅量大 ,而且会引入误差 .针对这一问题 ,提出了一种新的光顺方法 ,即通过调整初始网格顶点位置来光顺细分以后的结果 .在添加合适的约束后 ,该方法不仅可以在光顺细分面片的同时 ,降低细分面片和三维真实物体表面之间的逼近误差 ,而且由于最终输出的是初始控制网格 ,故需要保存的数据量小 .     

Pseudo‐Spline Subdivision Surfaces

Pseudo‐splines provide a rich family of subdivision schemes with a wide range of choices that meet various demands for balancing the approximation power, the length of the support, and the regularity of the limit functions. Special cases of pseudo‐splines include uniform odd‐degree B‐splines and the interpolatory 2n‐point subdivision schemes, and the other pseudo‐splines fill the gap between these two families. In this paper we show how the refinement step of a pseudo‐spline subdivision scheme can be implemented efficiently using repeated local operations, which require only the data in the direct neighbourhood of each vertex, and how to generalize this concept to quadrilateral meshes with arbitrary topology. The resulting pseudo‐spline surfaces can be arbitrarily smooth in regular mesh regions and C¹ at extraordinary vertices as our numerical analysis reveals.     

Evolutions of Polygons in the Study of Subdivision Surfaces

We employ the theory of evolving n-gons in the study of subdivision surfaces. We show that for subdivision schemes with small stencils the eigenanalysis of an evolving polygon, corresponding either to a face or to the 1-ring neighborhood of a vertex, complements in a geometrically intuitive way the eigenanalysis of the subdivision matrix. In the applications we study the types of singularities that may appear on a subdivision surface, and we find properties of the subdivision surface that depend on the initial control polyhedron only.     

形状可调的Loop 细分曲面渐进插值方法

针对Loop 细分无法调整形状与不能插值的问题,提出了一种形状可调的Loop 细分 曲面渐进插值方法。首先给出了一个既能对细分网格顶点统一调整又便于引入权因子实现细分曲 面形状可调的等价Loop 细分模板。其次,通过渐进迭代调整初始控制网格顶点生成新网格,运 用本文的两步Loop 细分方法对新网格进行细分,得到插值于初始控制顶点的形状可调的Loop 细分曲面。最后,证明了该方法的收敛性,并给出实例验证了该方法的有效性。     

Control vectors for splines

Traditionally, modelling using spline curves and surfaces is facilitated by control points. We propose to enhance the modelling process by the use of control vectors. This improves upon existing spline representations by providing such facilities as modelling with local (semi-sharp) creases, vanishing and diagonal features, and hierarchical editing. While our prime interest is in surfaces, most of the ideas are more simply described in the curve context. We demonstrate the advantages provided by control vectors on several curve and surface examples and explore avenues for future research on control vectors in the contexts of geometric modelling and finite element analysis based on splines, and B-splines and subdivision in particular.     

半静态回插细分方法

根据传统静态细分方法的不足,提出一类新颖的半静态回插细分方法.结合统一的细分框架、半静态控制和回插补偿三者的优势,基于细分算子的观点,分别给出了曲线和曲面情况的细分规则,并对其极限性质作出讨论.按照该方法,可以在不改变控制顶点的情况下,构造出从逼近到插值控制顶点的一系列曲线曲面.同时,引入网格顶点和连接边的方向标注,以生成具有整体方向性的光顺曲面.由于该方法基于符号表示,因此易于实现与扩展,适合于计算机动画造型和工业原型设计.     

Fitting Sharp Features with Loop Subdivision Surfaces

Various methods have been proposed for fitting subdivision surfaces to different forms of shape data (e.g., dense meshes or point clouds), but none of these methods effectively deals with shapes with sharp features, that is, creases, darts and corners. We present an effective method for fitting a Loop subdivision surface to a dense triangle mesh with sharp features. Our contribution is a new exact evaluation scheme for the Loop subdivision with all types of sharp features, which enables us to compute a fitting Loop subdivision surface for shapes with sharp features in an optimization framework. With an initial control mesh obtained from simplifying the input dense mesh using QEM, our fitting algorithm employs an iterative method to solve a nonlinear least squares problem based on the squared distances from the input mesh vertices to the fitting subdivision surface. This optimization framework depends critically on the ability to express these distances as quadratic functions of control mesh vertices using our exact evaluation scheme near sharp features. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.     

基于加权渐进插值的Loop 细分曲面等距逼近

等距曲面在CAD/CAM 领域有着重要的作用,由于细分曲面没有整体解 析表达式,使得计算细分曲面等距比参数曲面更加困难。针对目前已有的两种等距面逼近算 法进行了改进,利用加权渐进插值技术避免了传统细分等距逼近算法产生网格偏移的问题。 此外,提出了针对边界等距处理方案,使得等距后的细分曲面在内部和边界都均匀等距。该 方法无需求解线性方程组,具有全局和局部特性,能够处理闭网格和开网格,为Loop 细分 曲面数控加工奠定了良好的基础算法。最后给出的实例验证了算法的有效性。     

Modeling smooth shape using subdivision on differential coordinates

Traditional subdivision schemes are applied on Euclidean coordinates (the spatial geometry of the control mesh). Although the subdivision limit surfaces are almost everywhere C² continuous, their mean-curvature normals are only C⁰. In order to generate higher quality surfaces with better-distributed mean-curvature normals, we propose a novel framework to apply subdivision for shape modeling, which combines subdivision with differential shape processing. Our framework contains two parts: subdivision on differential coordinates (a kind of differential geometry of the control mesh), and mutual conversions between Euclidean coordinates and differential coordinates. Further discussions about various strategies in both parts include a special subdivision method for mean-curvature normals, additional surface editing options, and a version of our framework for curve design. Finally, we demonstrate the improvement on surface quality by comparing the results between our framework and traditional subdivision methods.     

Estimating subdivision depth of Catmull-Clark surfaces

In this paper, both general and exponential bounds of the distance between a uniform Catmull-Clark surface and its control polyhedron are derived. The exponential bound is independent of the process of subdivision and can be evaluated without recursive subdivision. Based on the exponential bound, we can predict the depth of subdivision within a user-specified error tolerance. This is quite useful and important for pre-computing the subdivision depth of subdivision surfaces in many engineering applications such as surface/surface intersection,mesh generation, numerical control machining and surface rendering.     

Dynamic Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces

Recursive subdivision schemes have been extensively used in computer graphics, computer-aided geometric design, and scientific visualization for modeling smooth surfaces of arbitrary topology. Recursive subdivision generates a visually pleasing smooth surface in the limit from an initial user-specified polygonal mesh through the repeated application of a fixed set of subdivision rules. We present a new dynamic surface model based on the Catmull-Clark subdivision scheme, a popular technique for modeling complicated objects of arbitrary genus. Our new dynamic surface model inherits the attractive properties of the Catmull-Clark subdivision scheme, as well as those of the physics-based models. This new model provides a direct and intuitive means of manipulating geometric shapes, and an efficient hierarchical approach for recovering complex shapes from large range and volume data sets using very few degrees of freedom (control vertices). We provide an analytic formulation and introduce the “physical” quantities required to develop the dynamic subdivision surface model which can be interactively deformed by applying synthesized forces. The governing dynamic differential equation is derived using Lagrangian mechanics and the finite element method. Our experiments demonstrate that this new dynamic model has a promising future in computer graphics, geometric shape design, and scientific visualization     

Sharp Features on Multiresolution Subdivision Surfaces

In this paper we describe a method for creating sharp features and trim regions on multiresolution subdivision surfaces along a set of user-defined curves. Operations such as engraving, embossing, and trimming are important in many surface modeling applications. Their implementation, however, is nontrivial due to computational, topological, and smoothness constraints that the underlying surface has to satisfy. The novelty of our work lies in the ability to create sharp features anywhere on a surface and in the fact that the resulting representation remains within the multiresolution subdivision framework. Preserving the original representation has the advantage that other operations applicable to multiresolution subdivision surfaces can subsequently be applied to the edited model. We also introduce an extended set of subdivision rules for Catmull–Clark surfaces that allows the creation of creases along diagonals of control mesh faces.     

基于任意三角网格的ternary插值细分曲面造型及其分析

针对任意三角网格,提出一种简单有效且局部性更好的带参数的ternary插值曲面细分法,给出并证明了细分法收敛与G1连续的充分条件.在任意给定三角控制网格的条件下,可通过对形状参数的适当选择来实现对插值细分曲面形状的调整.     

Analytical solutions for tree‐like structure modelling using subdivision surfaces

We present a novel approach to efficiently modelling branch structures with high‐quality meshes. Our approach has the following advantages. First, the limit surface can fit the target skeleton models as tightly as possible by reversely calculating the control vertices of subdivision surfaces. Second, high performance is achieved through our proposed analytical solutions and the parallel subdivision scheme on a graphics processing unit. Third, a smooth manifold quad‐only mesh is produced from the adopted Catmull–Clark scheme. A number of examples are given to demonstrate applications of our approach in various branch structures, such as tree branches, animal torsos, and vasculatures. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Least Squares Subdivision Surfaces

The usual approach to design subdivision schemes for curves and surfaces basically consists in combining proper rules for regular configurations, with some specific heuristics to handle extraordinary vertices. In this paper, we introduce an alternative approach, called Least Squares Subdivision Surfaces (LS), where the key idea is to iteratively project each vertex onto a local approximation of the current polygonal mesh. While the resulting procedure haves the same complexity as simpler subdivision schemes, our method offers much higher visual quality, especially in the vicinity of extraordinary vertices. Moreover, we show it can be easily generalized to support boundaries and creases. The fitting procedure allows for a local control of the surface from the normals, making LS³ very well suited for interactive freeform modeling applications. We demonstrate our approach on diadic triangular and quadrangular refinement schemes, though it can be applied to any splitting strategies.